'The Eye'
The main protagonist of ‘Operator’, Cpt. Griffifth Alexander Holbrook, has a prosthetic left eye that has not yet been referred to as anything other than ‘the Eye’ or other terms such as ‘his eye thing’ or ‘Griff’s Eye’. Appearance When entirely dormant, the Eye appears as a silvery-blue sphere with a circle on the front roughly approximating a pupil/iris. When first seen, it is suspended in a jar of fluid, revealing a ridge or groove of some sort around its circumference, and at least four cables coming out of the back. When active, the ‘iris’ turns a bright blue colour, sometimes flashing or glowing. At one point, it has even appeared to produce blue flame from Griff’s eye socket, which then spread to leak from the joints of the ‘Raging Griffon’ before becoming a sort of radiant blue lightning. Synopsis After suffering an injury depriving him of the use of his left eye, it appears as if Griff has no choice but to leave the military, due to being unable to operate an Armour with one eye. However, Banse and Blaize appear and offer him an alternative in the form of a prosthetic eye implant. Despite Ash’s doubts, the Eye is implanted successfully, and enables Griff to continue fighting. During a skirmish to recapture a town in Southern France, Griff discovers that the Eye allows him to intuitively sense the location of all machines on the field, and what they are doing, later likening this to having a spy in the cockpit of every Armour, friend and foe. After the conflict, Griff then discovers how to use the Eye to access the military computer network. Failing to find any information on Banse and Blaize, only a cryptic message hinting at further properties of the Eye, Griff then uses it to check Hannah’s medical records for her bust size. She chokes him before he can reveal it. Griff is challenged to single combat by the German officer Hpt. Hans-Jurgen Jaeger, and finds that, while his Eye can read his opponent’s movements ahead of time, the difference in speed and agility between their two machines is too great for this to be of any benefit. When Griff loses consciousness, however, The Eye takes over his body and the Raging Griffon, first replacing its lost arm with one torn from Jaeger’s Armour, then combining the two machines into a newer, streamlined version of the Raging Griffon. The light given off by this process shines on Hannah May Fairfax, Rosalind Edlyn Grey, Seymour Earl Ashleigh III, and Hans-Jurgen Jaeger, while the narration cryptically states that ‘that light had already bound our fates together’. Abilities In addition to providing Griff with normal vision from his left eye, The Eye has also displayed a number of supernatural powers. *Spatial Awareness: While The Eye is active, Griff understands intuitively where all machines in the field are in relation to himself, friend and foe. Captain Harcourt mentions that the Eye can keep track of large numbers of troops and their manoeuvres. *Technique Reading: The Eye reads and predicts the actions of enemy Armours, allowing Griff to understand what his opponents will be doing and react accordingly, and in some cases, copy basic techniques. This is shown once as a blue outline preceding the Armour’s movements. The advantage of this ability can be circumvented by an opponent who is both faster than Griff and has the ability to vary his moves. *Body Control: The Eye has shown the ability to control Griff’s body and Armour when Griff himself is knocked unconscious. *Matter Control: By far the Eye’s most powerful ability shown to date. While The Eye controls Griff’s unconscious body, it displays the ability to graft parts from other machines onto Griff’s Armour, and even dismantle and recombine two machines into one. Griff may not be able to use this ability himself yet.